The Healer
by themyscira
Summary: Superhero AU: Rapunzel has healing abilities, a fact she's known all her life. What she didn't know was the truth about her identity. A series of events take place that lead her not only to the truth, but to people she'll grow to care for.
1. Chapter 1

** I got a Superhero AU request a really long time ago! You'd think with all the superhero shows I watch and the comics I have yada yada that this would be more forte, ha...it's closer to NBC's Heroes than it is comic-book but they are a superhero team! Coming together...slowly.**

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Rapunzel stood on the edge of a cliff with her toes against the rock and her hands raised up in the air. From afar, some would wonder if she was an angel, others would call her mad and dial three numbers on the phone to stop her from the fall. But Rapunzel knew better, even as her body shivered and her mind screamed she was attempting an impossibility that had a 100% chance of death, she'd come to learn her limits broke impossibilities.

"Here goes," She breathed in deeply and pushed off the ledge.

Rapunzel did not fly, she did not soar, she did not move as her body lurched forward and her mind continued to scream she was within seconds of death. She hit the ground with an incredibly loud crack and her body crumbled around her. Anyone else would have died from the impact.

Rapunzel grumbled a moment from the pain, but it was brief. She pushed herself over on her back and turned her neck left to crack it back into place. She did the same to her other bones, one by one until she was down to her left leg. She used her hands to snap it back in then ran her fingers over her bones to make sure everything was aligned.

Blood dripped from her head but there were no wounds, they'd already healed. She was tired but excited. It was a 100 foot dropped, she'd lived. In hindsight, she couldn't be sure, she knew she could put her hand in boiling water, she knew she could withstand fires in burning buildings, she knew her limits had not been reached but a 100ft drop was the most daring of all because she'd have no time to go back, to salvage her body. She sighed; the stone house was a few miles away. It was abandoned with a musty order. There was no plumbing or electricity but there was a blanket and a pillow and a few yards away was a stream where she bathed. It was her home for the summer; it was her haven.

Her old home, hardly a home at all, was where her mother kept her chained and used Rapunzel's gifts for her own evil deeds. She shook off those memories, she couldn't think of it now. She was homeschooled for years but she wasn't sure if what she knew was real, she longed for a real school, a real mother, she longed for friends.

For now, until the summer ended, she'd entertain herself by testing her limits.

She walked back to her new home and sat in front of the door. It was hot outside but it didn't bother her, nothing physical did. It's what was inside that hurt, the emotions deep inside that reminded her she had no real family, no confidant. That's what she thought, that is, until she went to bed that night and heard a scratch on the door.

She jumped; startled by the sound, then she wondered if a bullet could kill her. She made a mental note to get a hold of a gun to try, then she wondered when her life became so morbid.

She heard the scratch again, then a knock, someone wanted to come in but they didn't knock on the door, they knocked on the window where she kept her sunflowers, one of the few things she'd taken with her when she fled her old home, when she left her mother's body on the ground. She shuttered and stood. She was sure her mother had died, the woman had accidentally impaled herself when she tried to restrain her, it was an accident, Rapunzel knew that, she told the guilt it was her mother's undoing, even though it hurt her to think her escape had led to death.

"Who's there?" She squeaked. She had a pan in her hand as she walked to the window. She couldn't make out the face in the dark but she saw the frame of the body, she was sure it wasn't her mother but she wondered if she'd somehow damaged her brain in the fall and was in fact having a hallucination.

Frost had formed on the window; she dropped her pan and opened the window. There on the ledge was a boy about her age with brown hair, brown eyes and a sly smirk.

"Jack Frost." He said with a hand extended out to her, "I don't bit, unless you count frost bit."

She kept her hands to herself and he laughed, "Sorry, it was a joke. I only do that to the bad guys.

Rapunzel walked away from the window and he came in, "If I had more time I'd be a lot more chivalrous about this,"

She only stared.

He cleared his throat, "But when I knew who you were I wanted to make myself known."

"Jack Frost." She repeated and he nodded.

"I'm…"

"A healer," Jack said quickly, "What's your name?"

"You said you knew who I was?" She searched the room for the pan and he leaned back onto the wall as a sign that he meant her no harm.

"I mean your abilities."

"My powers aren't who I am." She said, her voice was deeper and louder than it had ever been. Then she felt ashamed and apologized for her tone.

"Don't apologize," He said, his expression was kind, "I understood what you meant," He sat down and waited for her too sit. When she did he tilted his head and bit his lip. It wasn't an "unsure" bit of the lip like Rapunzel was prone to do but one that made her cheeks burn brighter.

"Are you okay with telling me your name?"

"Rapunzel." She said quietly.

"Hi Rapunzel, Jack Frost, not actually Frost, that's just what they call me on the streets because of the ice business."

"You have an ice business?"

Jack laughed, "Nah, I'm too much of a hooligan to run a proper business, you'll find that out. But…"

Her eyes were so tuned to him, more than any person he'd ever known. It struck him then that she was a good listener; it made him like her even though they'd just met. He was use to be invisible, "Can you hold out your hand?"

Rapunzel reached up to twirl her hair but there was nothing near her shoulder; she kept forgetting that.

"My…" She was about to say her mother told her never to talk to strangers. At the time it was a worthy piece of advice, but her mother was the real stranger and that made her question if how well one knew someone was really were trust began. She decided know, that knowing provided a deeper trust but the real start of it came from a person's eyes. Jack had nice eyes, not nice as in beautiful, although they were nice to look at it. Nice as in kind.

"Okay." She held out her hand. Jack moved gently toward her. He held out his to hands and wrapped them around her palm. His touch was cold but gentle. When he pulled away he saw a rose made of ice.

"It's beautiful!" She held it close to her face and traced the petals with her fingernail, "Thank you!"

Jack smiled, not like before, it was a shy smile and she thought his cheeks had briefly become red.

"It's a welcoming gift, or a nice to meet you gift."

"I don't have anything for you?"

Jack waved his hands, "I'm the one who came here uninvited! I do that a lot though, you'll find that out. They don't call me a rebel without a cause for nothing."

"They?"

"Yeah, well we are a team, me and my friends."

"We?"

Jack spent an hour and a half explaining to Rapunzel who he was and what "we" meant. Jack Frost had powers too, unlike Rapunzel he wasn't indestructible, but he could manipulate water and all it's forms. When he made it snow outside his hair turned white and his eyes lightened to a frosty blue. When she asked him if he was born with those powers, like she was, he gave her a wide grin and told her the story behind his powers was a mystery to him.

"And there's others?"

"Hiccup and Merida." He explained Hiccup could talk to animals and had a dragon. The word dragon made Rapunzel's eyes widen and launched a whole new set of questions that Jack struggled to answer.

"And Merida, she doesn't have powers but she's a weapon's expert, arrows, guns, maces, all that stuff. And she's got some strange… alliances." Jack smiled, he was afraid if he told Rapunzel Merida had witches among her allies she'd ask more questions as she did when he brought up the dragon. When he was done, his throat was sore.

"But…but how did you find me? What does your team do? What do you want from me?" She ran her hands through her hair and stopped in midair again. She held the rose closer. It was cold but not too cold and it hadn't melted, not one bit.

Jack paused, he wasn't sure how to phrase the next sentence but it was getting late and he couldn't afford to be gone for too long. With a big deep breath, he found the word, "The body on the news, the lady you lived with." He said it calmly and watched her expression carefully. He didn't know if she'd killed the woman, he only knew she was a criminal, courtesy of Hiccup's computer skills. The news report included the possibility of a missing person given there were teenage clothes found in the home.

"We started to look for you." He told her, "Merida was the one who figured you'd hide somewhere quiet, when I found this place it was empty but the flowers over there," He pointed to her precious flowers, "They were alive, figured you were behind it."

"But how did you know I had powers? Isn't that why you looked for me?" She ran through her memories over the past few weeks. Had she been too careless? If he had seen her healing, others might have too, others who weren't so similar and understanding.

He saw the worry in her eyes and put a hand on her shoulder, "We didn't know, we were just trying to help you." His tone was kind but the mischief in his face didn't leave him. It seemed to be embedded in his skin.

"Why?" She'd only known one person her entire life and that one person had pretended to help for years but was in actuality using her for her abilities. It made Rapunzel shake to think she was kept around for what she could do, rather than who she was and the latter had become a mystery to her.

His shoulders lowered, "It's what we do."

Against her better judgment, she believed him and smiled.

Then he explained what he'd seen. When she wasn't in the house, he started to look for her around the cliff sides. He saw her jump, too stunned to scream. He used the wind, another one of his abilities, to carry him down the cliff and there he saw her heal herself, he saw her walk away as if she hadn't had her bones broken and her head cracked open.

"That's why I want you to come with me and be my…I mean our team member." He cleared his throat.

"Me?"

"It's your choice though," He explained, his tone soft, his eyes full of hope, he wanted her to come and she wanted to go for that reason alone but instead she put hands on her hips and paced around the room.

"I have to think about it." The bubbly excitement was too apparent in her words, as was the light in her eyes. Of course she wanted to go, it was a chance at a new life with people who could help her, people who could be her friends. And their mission was to help, what more could she ask for.

"I understand," Jack was at the window again, his hair turned white when he held out his hand to the night sky. She felt a breeze against her face, "Would it be okay if I came back, in a week?"

"That would be great," She smiled again; she liked having someone to talk to.

"Good, I'll look forward to it." Jack's smile was shy again and her heart beat a little faster. She pressed the rose against her chest and waved goodbye.

She wasn't sure but she thought he'd winked at her just before the wind pulled him from her window and into the air. Then he was gone.

In the week they were apart, Rapunzel had found herself a knife and a gun, both of which she obtained after venturing into the city and had exchanged for some of her mother's rings. She learned a bullet and a stab wound could not kill her, but by then she wasn't surprised. The day before he'd come, she'd arranged her new weapons next to her makeshift bed and had dusted the floors. She dusted them everyday but today more than usual. It wasn't his impending arrival that made her stomach lurch but the fact that she'd run out of food.

She stared back at the gun and wondered if she could sell it back, she didn't need it, she sighed, she'd never been could with money, or so her mother had told her a thousand times when she asked for a few dollars to buy ice cream and the like. Those requests were futile because they required her to leave the room and her mother would never allow that.

"Fake mother," She said loudly, "Why do I keep forgetting that." She felt her eyes water and her throat tighten. She had to tell him yes when he came; she started to pack.

When it was time for him to come she'd wrapped up her pan, her cup, her books, her clothes, her blanket and pillow. She had the gun in a blanket and the knife in her pocket. She left the pot of sunflowers on the window for him to smell when he came. She liked the idea of visitors sharing the joy her flowers brought, it almost made her believe this place really was her home.

After an hour or so she sat on the windowsill and watched the stars, any moment, she thought, he'd come flying through the window and land, with what she imagined to be a hard smack and a silly grin.

When the sun started to rise and her eyes could no longer stay open, she wondered if he was not going to come, and then she drifted off to sleep. She dreamed of his face and the smell of flowers, she dreamed of the sun and the taste of ice cream.

When she woke, she was on the floor. She'd fallen but she was not in any pain, she stared around them room and searched for him in and out of the house. He was nowhere to be found and her stomach growled something awful. She put her hands around her belly. Her hunger couldn't be ignored much longer but still she wondered if he'd forgotten, if he'd lied, if she had in fact imagined the whole thing, or…or if something had happened to him.

Given how eager she was to leave, and given the fact that there was no food around for miles, Rapunzel reluctantly put on her only pair of shoes, put her backpack on and carried her pot of flowers right out the door. She didn't look back but walked and walked and walked.

By the time she saw the city she felt an intense urge to sleep again, she wondered if that's what would kill her, sleep deprivation. Then she remembered it was her hunger that made her want to sleep and then she thought hunger was the one thing that could end her life.

When she'd finally got inside the city she felt the hunger subside and laughed, she'd left her home and now she couldn't even feel her stomach anymore. Instead of walking back, she wandered. The dust and silence of the countryside made her tired but the bustle and chatter of the city made her nerves tingle. She passed by bakery shops, pawnshops and grocery stores. She passed by restaurants and street performers. She walked past them with a smile and a wave, a nod when she made eye contact, and a friendly laugh here and there. She wandered until the day had become night and she'd found herself in a part of the city that no girl should ever wander.

She'd wandered right into a scene of a car jacking and found herself face to face with a gun.

"Get out of here!" One of the thugs shouted. Rapunzel stood, not out of defiance but confusion. She'd walked all around the city for no reason, all because a boy didn't come to her window when he said he would, and in that moment she realized she had no desire to go back to the abandoned home where the only voice she heard was herself. Even the shouting of a street thug with a gun on her stomach made her feel more human than when she was alone, she'd spent too much time alone. Besides, she thought, Jack could be in trouble. But of course, as it dawned on her, if he was she had no way of finding him.

"Please don't," Rapunzel squeaked, she backed away, she knew he could not hurt her, but she didn't want to expose herself, she didn't want to start rumors, she wanted to hide but she didn't want to be alone. The contradictory thoughts made her pause and it was that pause that made the man shoot her.

She let out a small yelp and fell backwards. She clung to her flowerpot and made sure the soil did not spill. She heard the thugs argue with one another and then she heard them run. It was only a minute or so before she heard them scream and then it was very quiet.

"They shot someone!" She heard a girl say, she had a thick Scottish accent.

For a moment, Rapunzel forgot she'd been shot. She put her flowerpot down and forced herself to stand. The blood had stopped and the bullet had fallen out but the wound hadn't finished healing.

Out of nowhere, she saw a girl with bushy red hair. She talked quickly, it was the girl she'd heard and she struggled to answer all the questions.

"It's okay," Rapunzel said, "I'm fine." She smiled at the girl who she now noticed had a bow and a quiver packed with arrows. Around her torso where bullet casings and at both her sides were guns. She had necklace with knives on it and straps on her legs that she assumed had even more weapons. She wore black combat boots, dark jeans, and a black hood over her face.

"Are you Merida?" She asked when the girl had gone silent.

From her left, she heard someone step closer to her, a boy with brown hair and green eyes. He wore a t-shirt and jeans, not a weapon on him. He didn't say a word when he knelt down and took out a flashlight from his pocket. He looked at her wound; it was nearly gone.

"It's her Merida," Hiccup said, "The healer."

They took her back to their headquarters, aka Hiccup's basement. He had a series of computers and keyboards with various machines hooked up on one wall. On another wall was a board with notes and newspaper clippings and on another wall were shelves of weapons, she guessed those were Merida's.

"We're still new," Hiccup said, he pointed to the fourth wall where a few chairs were set up. She took a seat and held her flowerpot close; she thought she heard Merida snort.

"Jack said he'd come back," She looked around the room and wondered if anything belonged to him, "But he didn't, I came into the city because…" She didn't have an answer and let her voice trail off.

"He's missing." Hiccup said, "We haven't seen him for a week."

"I told you we should've gone to find her ourselves!" Merida snapped. She hung her bow on the shelf but pulled an arrow from her quiver and flipped it around her fingers, "Now we've got no lead!"

"Yeah, I heard you the first dozen times."

Merida let out a huff and leaned against the wall.

"He's in trouble," Rapunzel said more to herself than to them, "How can I help?"

"Ay, that's the stuff, doer not a sit-arounder." Merida said, her eyes were on Hiccup.

"Yes, because hacking into traffic lights isn't considered a doing thing," He smiled wryly and Merida huffed again.

"No tech is as good as these." She pointed to her eyes and turned her back on them.

"You'll have to excuse Merida, she gets antsy easily."

Rapunzel nodded slowly, "Do you have any idea where he can be?"

"One!" Merida said, "Something to do with the dead lady you ran away from." Merida looked over her shoulder, she had what Rapunzel thought was admiration in her eyes. Rapunzel swallowed hard.

"I didn't kill her." She said with a squeak, "I would never kill." She pressed her flowerpot closer to her body and felt the tears form again. She shut her eyes and inhaled the scent of her flowers.

"Too bad." Merida said.

"Merida." Hiccup said warningly.

"It's fine, it's fine, that's my job on the team." She walked over to Rapunzel, "But we've got ourselves a theory," She looked right at Rapunzel, "We think when Jack was coming back from meeting with ya, someone took him because of you."

"Me?"

Hiccup took out his phone from his pocket and played for her the last message Jack had left.

_Haddock I found her! Spoke to her, I asked her to come with me but she seemed afraid, can't blame her but I think if I came back a few times she'll come around. She's nice, you can tell by this look in her eyes that she-_

Jack's words were caught off by a strangle, a drop, a crash, then she heard a few faint words in the background. Someone, a man, asked Jack where she, the healer as the man called her, was. Then it was silence.

"Why didn't you come find me?" Rapunzel said breathlessly.

"I wanted to!" Merida yelled.

"But." Hiccup said with a trace of a smile.

"But Hiccup said no." Merida said frankly. Hiccup shot her a look and she sighed, "And…and Cause Jack is an idiot who never told us where he'd gone and found ya!" Merida shouted, her anger was at Jack not at Rapunzel, "These boys never listen, lesson number one!"

"I listen." Hiccup said.

"Pah."

Hiccup made a face and Merida lowered her shoulders, "Oh alright, you listen a bit better." Rapunzel thought she saw Merida's cheeks flare red but it was hard to tell with all her red hair.

After a bit more bickering, more on Merida's part, Rapunzel was asked a series of question about the mother she'd known all her life.

"We couldn't find much on her," Hiccup explained, "Only that she'd been off the radar for the past few decades, she's got a juvie record but I couldn't access it. The only thing I found was her name on an FBI wanted list but I didn't know for what. Any ideas?"

Rapunzel tried to remember suspicious moments in the 16 years she'd lived with the woman, or what she presumed to be 16 years, she had no memories before she turned five…It was then that she realized that before then she could have had a whole other life, maybe a life that gave reason for someone to look for her now.

"Did you try searching for me?"

Merida and Hiccup exchanged confused looks, "We told you," Hiccup said, "Jack didn't say-"

"No, no. I mean me, who I was. She wasn't my real mother," Rapunzel put her flowerpot down and stood up, "I found that out before she died…she didn't know I was awake…I was obedient, a good girl." She paused, now was not the time to talk about how she'd acted or how she'd been treated, how she'd been conditioned to see herself as less than human but having for so long believed that her mother, her fake mother's words were suppose to be out of love.

"Are you okay?" Merida asked, her voice sounded kind for the first time.

"She thought I was asleep but I wasn't, I was awake. I heard her on the phone, she didn't call me her daughter, she called me 'the girl' and said she'd keep me hidden for however long she wanted because she was in control…not whoever it was on the phone. She said it like this," Rapunzel shut her eyes, "'I'm in control, not you, not her, not her parents or whoever else wants to claim her. You want her powers, you'll have to see me dead first.'" Rapunzel remembered her fake mother's cackle.

Rapunzel shivered, both Hiccup and Merida put a hand on her shoulder, it reminded her of Jack.

"You were kidnapped as a baby." Hiccup shook his head, "It's the best explanation."

"And for her powers." Merida pointed out; "Whoever took Jack is probably the same bloke who killed the lady, Gothel."

Rapunzel shook her head, "That was an accident, she fell." She looked away from them and they didn't press.

"What's your name?" Hiccup asked.

"Rapunzel." She said quietly.

Hiccup entered her name into his computer and Merida scoffed.

"What are the chances that that's her real name! No way Gothel would be stupid enough to keep it, it's a dead giveaway."

"Maybe," Hiccup said, "But it's a strange name," He turned briefly to say "no offense" in Rapunzel's direction.

"I can tell she's nice," Merida said, "Or else she'd mock ya for calling her name Rapunzel when your name is Hiccup!"

"Yeah never heard that one before." Merida smiled.

Rapunzel fell asleep waiting for Hiccup to find something. When she woke up she was wrapped in a blanket with a pillow behind her head. Hiccup had a cup of coffee and circles under his eyes. Merida was on the floor doing push-ups, she had a fresh change of clothes and sweat on her brow.

"I've got it." Hiccup said, he had a weary smile, "I know who you are."

"Finally!" Merida shouted, "So what's the big secret, who is she?"

"Did you find a lead to Jack?" Rapunzel stood up, she wanted to change, to take a decent shower, to brush her hair, a task that would be a lot easier given her hair was shorter now. Instead she stared at the screen and saw the faces of people she did not recognize but she was sure she knew.

"Who are they?" Rapunzel touched the screen.

"Those are your parents." Hiccup said gently, "King and Queen of Corona."


	2. Chapter 2

Jack pushed his hands against the top of his new prison, a prison that was only big enough to fit him and only him. He held his breath and then inhaled deeply, small spaces made his body ache and put his mind in a frenzy. Jack was in a coffin.

"Let me out!" He screamed for the hundredth time. His voice was hoarse, his fists were red and blue. Red from the scrapes against the metal, blue from the coldness. Cold temperatures were nothing new to him, they helped him thrive, but in such a tight space it felt as though he'd turned completely into ice. No heartbeat, no breath.

He tried to freeze the top to break through, but whatever prison he was in, his powers were useless for escape; the metal stayed intact.

"Not yet." He heard the voice said for the fifth time since his capture, "she's not here yet."

Jack had already guessed who the "she" was. The last person he'd seen, Rapunzel. The fact that he was here because she wasn't was a small comfort. If his captor wanted her, at least he didn't have her, and if he didn't have her, she was safe.

"The longer you keep me here, the worse it's going to be for you." Jack said, "I know a redhead who likes to take out her anger with sharp pointy objects."

He heard a chuckle, "No arrows could handle the darkness." Jack stiffened. Did this man know Merida too, and Hiccup? What about Tooth and his other friends?

"Excuse me?" He tried to sound nonchalant, "What's that suppose to mean?"

"The darkness consumes it all." He heard a door close.

It had been days since his capture and with every day came a new place for him to be stored. Sometimes it was a cell, sometimes it was a bubble, today it was a coffin. He didn't know why the voice, a man, kept changing his prison, but everyday it was something different, another confinement. Jack was never led there, he only woke up to a new hell. Jack shut his eyes; this was the worse one yet.

Sometimes, when he was very quiet, the man would give him food, but if Jack was loud, he'd get nothing, not so much as a sip of water. With all his power, he couldn't escape. Metal bars would not break to his frozen touch, nor would the lid of this coffin. It didn't make sense to him, he'd broken metal thousands of times before with a quick freeze, but here…here he was powerless.

Hours passed, or what felt like hours. His body became cold, his mind numb. The others would find him, he was sure of that, but to be kept in such tightness…it made him nauseous, it made him want to die. Jack was a creature of the wind, he floated, he moved. To remain still was painful. To be forced to be still was worse. But to be forced into stillness in place where there was no room made him wish he was dead.

"Alive?" He heard the man ask.

"I wouldn't call it that." Jack said.

"Since you've been quiet, you may have some food."

Jack wanted to spit but he was too tired. Water and food made him obey, but Jack didn't like to obey, he liked to break the rules. Rule breaking wouldn't get him anywhere, he was sure of that, after days of this torture, but he could always try a trade.

"I'll trade you my food for an answer to a question."

The man laughed, "What's the question?"

Jack took a deep breath, he thought back to the brown haired girl, wide green eyes, and soft hands. She seemed so gentle and yet she'd purposely fallen to what would be death to most. He'd seen how she pieced herself back together, he doubted she could be killed, but he wondered if she felt pain and if so, would this man torture her?

"What do you want with her?" Jack asked.

Silence followed.

Jack cursed himself, what were the odds someone like this would answer anything, let alone agree to a bargain. The man had the food after all; Jack was just the prisoner.

Then, unexpectedly, the man spoke, "Everyone wants the Corona girl, for power, for safety. The reasons are obvious."

"How would she get you power?" Rapunzel was a small, kind girl. She was not an assassin, she didn't have connections, she was just a girl. Jack shook his head, quiet a feat given the lack of space to move. Rapunzel wasn't "just" a girl. He knew that from being with her, she had a warmth that made one feel safe. But, he doubted that's what the man meant. And then there was what he'd called her, "the Corona girl." Was Corona a place? He couldn't remember, it sounded familiar...

The man chuckled again, "If you want the answer to that, you'll have to give up your water too, and given your predicament, I wouldn't advise it."

And then the man was gone. Jack's stomach grumbled. Who was this girl? As far as he'd known, she was abused at the hands of a woman by the name of Gothel, she'd run away, she had powers. Why was she "the Corona girl?"

Jack shut his eyes again, he thought he heard her speak but then he realized he was dreaming. In his dream her hair was long and golden, she smiled at him and he smiled back. When he woke up again he wasn't in the coffin, he could move, but he could not see; it was complete darkness.


End file.
